Telangana to give Rs 5 lakh ex gratia to Gulf victims

KARIMNAGAR: With establishing the welfare board for the Gulf workers and announcing ex gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the workers’ families in case of any untoward incident, the Congress government has fulfilled one more of its election promises, said government chief whip and MLA Aadi Srinivas here in Vemulawada of Rajanna Sircilla district on Tuesday. He thanked the Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy for actively fulfilling this promise, which could help several distressed families in the state.

“The previous BRS government promised the Gulf workers that it would allot Rs 100 crore for their welfare and would sanction Rs 5 lakh ex gratia for the victims, but betrayed them. In the past nine years, the reports of Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad showed that around 2,000 dead bodies of the Gulf workers arrived in Telangana, but the previous BRS government did not sanction a single rupee to their family members,” he charged.

Srinivas said the state government issued a GO to constitute a separate welfare board for the Gulf workers after transport minister Ponnam Prabhakar held discussions on this matter two days ago. Previously, the late Y. S. Rajashekar Reddy government gave Rs 1 lakh ex gratia to the family members of the Gulf workers who died while working in those countries, he informed.

He said Telangana is the only government in the country that is sanctioning `5 lakh ex gratia to the family members of deceased Gulf workers. "By appointing special officers at the Praja Bhavan in Hyderabad, the government will try to resolve the issues of the Gulf workers and give admissions to the children of Gulf workers in gurukul schools and colleges," he added.